UK:
And The Winner Is? Celebrity Media Should Come With A Warning Label

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…anyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of
outrageous media attention without then having to take arms against
a sea of reputation troubles, and by opposing end them. Awards
season brings out our favorite celebrities and stars for their
annual accolades – but it also brings out the cameras. And if
you dare to strut the red carpet, or put your head above the
publicity parapet, you may take home a shining trophy – but
you are also at risk of having your reputation, brand and privacy,
blown apart.

Awards season has just concluded. This was the time for
entertainers to be showered with Golden Globes, Oscars, Tonys,
Grammys and a whole host of shiny embodiments of recognition,
applauding the recipient for their achievements in cinema, theatre
and music.

But it can also be a time for crowns to slip, for reputations to
take a tumble and for privacy to take a bashing. The bastardised
adage “live by the camera, die by the camera” is truer
today when everyone with a phone is a paparazzi photographer and a
publisher, than it was decades ago when stars of the silver screen
where still able to maintain some modicum of privacy and to manage
the image that they showed to the public.

Today, the insatiable curiosity of the public is served by
omnipresent social media and by an omnipotent mainstream media. Any
talented individual seeking to secure their fortune through the
arts must also be prepared for the fame that is its companion. And
while one side of the celebrity coin is accolade and approval, the
other can be intrusion and reputational damage. The media, other
people, and we ourselves, hold the means of reputational damage on
the one hand, or preservation on the other, in our own hands.

Reputation rehab – no, no, no

There are numerous slips and trips for entertainers along the
red carpet to stardom. Weeping at the podium – Gwyneth
Paltrow takes the award for that; red carpet wardrobe disasters;
overlong speeches; jokes that don't quite hit the mark –
all minor mistakes from which a penitent may be rehabilitated. But
the oxygen of publicity of Twitter storms and 24 hour rolling news
can turn a judgment failure into a catastrophic brand killer.

Today, rehabilitation from the errors of one’s past is
hindered by the private desire of many, and the professional need
of some, to live our lives online. Inaccurate information, false
and defamatory allegations, private information, even postings that
were once acceptable but which are now inappropriate and out of
date can sink a reputational ship.

Actor Kevin Hart, originally due to host the 2019 Oscar ceremony
was unceremoniously stripped of the role after the surfacing of
historical tweets criticized as homophobic. Actor Steve
Martin– a non-host host of the 2020 Oscars – questioned
in introducing the awards, "They don't really have hosts
anymore. Why is that?" Alluding to Hart's sacking, and
seemingly subtly criticizing the reputational damage caused as a
result, his co-non-host host comedian Chris Rock quickly responded,
"Twitter!"

The sins of yesteryear lurk on the internet to pop up like
spring bulbs under the glare of the media spotlight. And the
so-called "cancel culture" – a kind of social media
mob rule where internet vigilantes call the reputational shots
– provides that any such historical transgressor should be
censured, castigated and cancelled out as a result.

Turning the other cheek

This year’s host of the 2020 Golden Globes, famously
irreverent English actor Ricky Gervais, turned up the heat with his
roasting of film producers, joking that they might all be
uncomfortably waiting to be implicated in the Harvey Weinstein
sexual abuse scandal. Formally to accuse anyone of being involved
in such activities would be to invite a multi-million dollar law
suit for defamation – even in America where the burden of
proof is on the plaintiff to show that the allegations are untrue,
and for the public figure plaintiff, as such producers would likely
be, to prove that the allegations were made with malice and without
any belief in their truth.

Constantly under the camera, those in the public eye need to
learn when to react and when to turn the other cheek. Seasoned
professionals such as Leonardo Di Caprio – teased by Jervais
at the Globes for dating very young women – can have the
confidence, good sense and good grace to laugh at the joke. While
those with huge reputations such as Joe Pesce and Martin Scorsese
may be big enough to take a verbal hit – again at the hands
of Jervais – for being diminutive.

However, those more likely to face reputational harm than the
celestial beings who have already climbed to the heady heights of
stardom are entertainers at the beginning of their careers. The
public and the media have a penchant for putting our nascent stars
on a pedestal only to then want to knock them off as they are about
to achieve success. Moreover, damaging headlines or inappropriate
disclosures about an artist who has yet to establish a significant
wind of support under their wings can cut short a career before it
has really begun.

Eleven year old English actor Roman Griffin Davis danced with
the devil during his onscreen friendship with an imaginary friend
Hitler, in the Oscar nominated black comedy Jojo Rabbit. But an
enemy more dangerous still, is the press. Careful preservation of
his own privacy, and cultivation of an amicable, yet cautious
relationship with the media, is a balance that any young entrant on
to the media stage needs to learn. At the same time, knowing how to
manage the smaller screen and what appears on social media,
Instagram and Twitter is a key lesson safely to navigate
one’s reputation and privacy along the road to stardom.

Celebrities and civilians – not so different

A brand is how you portray yourself to others; a reputation is
how you are perceived by others. Both are vulnerable to attack.
Those who earn their living and professional validity from the
entertainment industry can face a difficult balancing act between a
necessary disclosure of their public personas, and an unwanted
exposure of their private selves given they embody the
chameleon-like status of being both private person and public
property at the same time. Indeed, protecting a brand and
presenting a positive persona is part and parcel of the job.

Sympathy for an award winning actor, a celebrated comedian or a
millionaire musician as they plead for privacy while banking their
checks or carrying off their gongs, can be in short supply. But as
we admire them during awards season we can – perhaps just for
a minute – see them as human beings like us. As we do so, we
may recognise that we can all struggle in a world of 24-hour news
coverage and persistent prying social media, where our reputations
compete in a competitive, challenging market place but where we all
need to find some peace and privacy from time to time. Are there
any ways in which we all can help ourselves through these turbulent
times? Well yes, there are…

Step one – Information is power

If we are unaware of what is being said about us we can do
little to capitalise on the positive and nothing to mitigate the
negative. An online audit is like a reputational health check.
Taking the time to research, assess and stress-test the information
in the public domain will enable you: to understand the position
that particular media organisations have taken and will likely
continue to take vis-à-vis you and your work; to learn how
you are positioned with the public, and the likely direction of
social sentiment; and to decide what content you may be content to
see online, and what you may prefer to see removed.

Step two – act fast

A raft of remedies is available to those who find information
lurking in the dark recesses of the internet, or flashing in
sky-high letters across social media. Corrections and
clarifications of damaging material, apologies for defamatory
allegations, the removal of inaccurate or private data from online
sources, legal action, mitigating media campaigns... Whatever the
remedy sought, if you’re going to act, act fast. A bad review
in the early morning papers may once have been fish and chip wrap
– today, information online will remain there to be repeated
forever. And fake news told over and over again will soon become
the new truth.

Step three – know thyself

While a hostile critic with a poisonous pen may appear to be an
entertainer’s worst enemy, it’s not – it’s
us. Entertainers can be as caught up as the rest of us in the
appeal of immediate publication – especially where engaging
with fans and reviewers, magazines and photographers can be part
and parcel of the job. But a mis-toned comment or Tweet can sink a
reputational ship and cost you your job. Actress Rosanne Barr faced
a Twitter backlash in 2018 over an offensive tweet about a former
adviser to Barak Obama – despite a public apology for her
“bad taste’ joke the Rosanne show was cancelled as a
result.

Step four – Limit your exposure

Performers perform – that’s what they do. And they
need exposure to the public to be able to do so. But, a bit like
separating the yoke from the egg, they need also to know how to
separate their private life from their public life. So do we all.
Privacy is like the sand in an egg-timer; once its grains have
flowed from the private side into the public domain bowl below
there is generally no turning it upside down again.

Those under the constant glare of the media spotlight –
and indeed I would recommend this for us all – need to fix
privacy settings high on any social media sites maintained and
carefully select and restrict the class of people with whom private
photos – as opposed to publicity shots – are
shared.

And it’s not just your privacy that can be stolen should
you mismanage your social media self. Sofia Copppola’s 2013
film The Bling Ring told the true story of a series of burglaries
in the Hollywood Hills by a group of teenagers. Opportunistically
relying on information about their victims’ whereabouts from
what they posted on social media, the gang was able to target
houses when their celebrated owners – including Paris Hilton
– were out of town, robbing them of millions of dollars of
celebrity goodies.

Step five – gain comfort with confidentiality

Nothing can be nicer than curling up at home to watch a
favourite film or listen to a much-loved piece of music. A
Non-Disclosure Agreement, NDA, can serve
as a privacy-protecting comfort blanket to protect against the
possibility of private lives leaking onto the front pages of the
newspapers, or flooding across social media via disclosures from
disgruntled staff members or associates whom you have invited into
your home and life.

Be kind to ourselves

Benjamin Franklin said, “Glass, china and reputation are
easily cracked and never well-mended.” Oscar’s
reputation is at its best when he is clean and shiny – but a
tarnished reputation can be polished up with some professional
remedial reputation work. If Tony’s privacy is shattered
altogether, it may be beyond repair – but if you spot a
slight crack early enough, it may be mended. And if Grammy sings
altogether off-key, he can be impossible to listen to –
whereas some early advice on the right reputational tune to sing,
can save the performance.

Brad Pitt’s parting words on accepting his Golden Globe
for Best Supporting Actor 2020, were “Hey, if you see a
chance to be kind to someone tomorrow, take it – I think we
need it.” Being kind is not in the arsenal of media
organisations motivated by sales. So if you see a chance to be kind
to yourself, your reputation and your privacy and to protect them
all, take it – you may well need it.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.

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